Is the TurfTV deal on the road to nowhere?
Being involved with Youghal through the course of the trial, it has become a very frustrating process. It hasn’t just been three months – far from it. The period of anticipation and promise prior to the beginning of the trial seems to have been forgotten.
The better part of two years passed between the expected and actual start dates, allowing for a long period of doubt-driven derision from those who believed it would never or could never happen.
Since it has begun, there have been bumps along the road – the type which may never be fully ironed out - but, looking closely at Youghal and monitoring Mullingar and Tralee from afar, what has been produced has been as good as anything available in direct competition.
Given the period since the inception of the idea, it’s disappointing the parties involved feel further time is needed. My involvement has been of little consequence, but I feel for those whose routine has been upset by the required changes and who, for want of a better phrase, will be strung along some more before finding out whether or not their endeavours will reap reward.
Recently I spoke with one trainer who has to travel to work every day but on Mondays, when he has a runner at Youghal, must take a couple of hours off to ensure he gets home in time to get the greyhounds ready for the early start. For him and many more like him, it’s been a costly business to accommodate the trial.
While I have always felt that, from the perspective of owners and trainers, it was best to give the trial everything and worry about the financial upside when/if contracts were signed, this delay in making a final decision is bordering on taking advantage of such people.
Unquestionably, the pressure is on to ensure a deal is agreed, one fitting for what’s on offer, and rewarding to those who have bent over backwards to make it viable. Two more months should not be required, and if there is any talk of that date moving beyond January, it may be time to throw our hats at it.
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Leger winner Skywalker Rory’s presence in Saturday night’s first round of the Macroom Motor Services Open 575 Stake at Curraheen is a real coup for the competition and the track.
The Pat Guilfoyle-trained dog came of age at Limerick and could be a real star in 2016. It could be that he will need further than the Derby trip next year, and Curraheen’s 575 is a good place to test that theory.
Recent races over course and distance suggest the track record could be under threat. If there’s a threat to Skywalker Rory, it’s likely to be Newlawn Simon, whose recent form suggests he, too, could be a real star in 2016.
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The new ‘Rolling Pick 6’, revealed this week and begun at Harold’s Cross on Tuesday night, is a very Interesting concept. It works as a normal Pick 6, run from races three to eight, but at a different track every night.
To give the bet a kick start, €2,000 was put in to the pool on Tuesday night. Kilkenny was scheduled to host it for the second night, but the fact there won’t be racing at that track on a Wednesday until after Christmas scuppered that plan.
It moves on to Shelbourne tonight, to Limerick tomorrow, Curraheen on Saturday, Mullingar on Sunday, Youghal on Monday, then back to Harold’s Cross, where the cycle starts all over again.
For all bar the most fervently studious of punters, most of the tracks would make no appeal and thus, if not won at their favoured stadium, the hope would be it would return not won a week later.
It has the potential to be a high-profile bet, but the fear, as with the ill-fated ‘split Pick 6’, which was run across two tracks on the same night, is punters with knowledge of just one track will be reluctant to invest their money, fearing they are simply building the pool for punters at other tracks. In my time at Curraheen the Jackpot never took off, though I believe it has the right type of punter, particularly if the pool was big enough. Another damp squib or a jackpot to excite Tote punters? There’s plenty against it, so it’ll be interesting to look back in a week’s time and see how it has performed.
